As a boy, I was raised on dirt roads and pecan pies, in Grand Bay, Alabama. It's what I knew. They're what i learned. My mother nurtured me in a way that kept me clueless to what the outside world really had in-store for me. Like, I knew how to survive in the woods but I could not survive a conversation....let alone start one. I was shy in that way.

I knew art though.

I knew poetry. I knew drawing. I knew painting. I knew singing. Dancing wasn't a thing until I fest up to it at a pep rally in high school.

In all honesty, I didn't meet my first real friend until high school. I think, I was 13 when I met Brett Garrick and I thought he was the most rebellious human I had ever met. He introduced me into chaos....in a way. Something I really needed to learn. And I guess I taught him the art of chill....but I digress.

Prior to high school, there were no friends... I wasn't funny, i didn't have muscles, I wasn't good with women, nothing, etc. Everything that I am now, I learned. I taught myself.... The thing is, being alone is dope. I get it. I can even feel it trying to pull me back in most days and I'm tempted to run away into the night and chill in a homemade fort made of pillows and sheets, until the stars call me home.... but it's just not how the world works.

EVERYTHING I learned, everything I taught to me is basic for MY survival.

I taught myself how to be funnier because it makes me charismatic.

I taught myself how to talk to women because I love and will need a good woman, one day.

I taught myself how to hold a conversation because you literally can not do a damned thing in life without communication.

Anywho..... You may be where you are and where you are might not be where you wish to be but you can always fix that shit.

If that's what you want.

Anywho, that's my #TEDTALK